For fueling Blazers' revival, Taha gets NCAA Player of the Week nod

MANILA, Philippines - There are many reasons St. Benilde is on resurgence mode right now. Paolo Taha is the biggest of them.

The senior juggernaut guard from Marikina City has averaged 16.33 points in their last three games, including his season-high 24-point explosion in the Blazers' 84-64 rout of the Mapua Cardinals recently to help carry them back into Final Four contention in Season 89 of the NCAA after staying in the bottom with five straight losses.

In the process, Taha's sterling effort gained him the ACCEL/3XVI NCAA Press Corps Player of Week.

And St. Benilde coach Gabby Velasco wasn't surprised a bit.

"He's one of the leaders of this team and I expect him to have those kinds of games," said Velasco referring to Taha.

Taha beat his teammate Mark Romero and Perpetual Help's Juneric Baloria and Nigerian Nosa Omorogbe for the Gatorade-backed weekly plum given by the country's sportswriters covering the league.

Thanks to Taha, the Blazers have strung together three straight wins to move into a share of sixth place with the Emilio Aguinaldo Generals on 3-5 (win-loss) records.

Reigning three-peat champion San Beda and last year's runner-up Letran lead the league with 7-1 slates apiece followed by Perpetual (6-2), Jose Rizal (5-3) and San Sebastian (4-4).

It came right after dropping what could have been won games in their first five starts wherein St. Benilde had an average losing margin of 1.4 points a game.